Days from his fight with Cheick Kongo (15-6-2 MMA, 8-4-1 UFC) at UFC on Versus 4, he is on rumor patrol because things that get said come out different when they appear on the Internet.

Of course, there are some rumors Barry would love to keep alive, especially when it comes to his opponent, whom he meets Sunday at CONSOL Energy Center on the main card of the Versus-televised event.

To sift the true from the false leading up to the fight, you might ask Barry, a self-described ninja, these three true or false questions:

1) Is it true he does not train in wrestling or jiu jitsu?

“It’s true,” the former K-1 kickboxer joked during an open workout in support of Sunday’s event.

Then, he added: “Of course not. I knew that I was going to be able to have a devastating arsenal of attacks, but you have to be ready for everything. It’s like fighting somebody in the water and you can’t swim. I was in the UFC, and I couldn’t swim.”

Things turned around for Barry in the grappling department when he was invited to train with Brock Lesnar for this past July’s UFC 116 event. That forged a friendship with the then-heavyweight champion that extended to a camp for Lesnar’s fight with Cain Velasquez at UFC 121. Then, at the start of this year, he was invited to train full-time at the Team Death Clutch gym alongside Jon Madsen, Chris Tuchscherer, Eric “Red” Schafer and Lesnar before a second bout of diverticulitis struck.

Wrestling and jiu jitsu? That’s pretty much all Barry did, save for showing the guys what it felt like to be hit by a trained kickboxer.

Fans might not have seen that, however. Barry met a fellow striking enthusiast in Joey Beltran in his most recent fight. Before that, he met Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, after which he sat on the bench with a busted hand and foot. And even before that, Tim Hague submitted him with a guillotine choke after taking a few shots to the head. That’s plenty of evidence to suggest he’s allergic to the ground. Even his employer might have bought into it.

“Whoever made the (UFC) video game, they made my character (so that) as soon as my character falls down, he dies,” Barry joked.

So, hence the rumor patrol.

“There are people out there who still believe that I don’t wrestle and I don’t do jiu-jitsu; all I do is kickbox all day,” he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “It’s true.”

2) Is Cheick Kongo the best striker in the UFC heavyweight division?

From the start of his tenure in the promotion, Barry heard the hype about Kongo’s fearsome striking ability. And back then, it might have made sense. The French striker went on a three-fight streak of wins by TKO and was looking very much like the guy you didn’t want to engage on the feet.

But the deadliest striker? No way, Barry said at the time.

“I never brag and have the most killer ego, but that’s just something I couldn’t handle hearing,” he said. “I want to be known as the guy to look out for when it comes to punching and kicking.”

So he asked for the matchup over and over again. But by the time he got it, things had completely changed. Kongo had suffered back-to-back losses against former champ Frank Mir and champ-to-be Cain Velasquez, and when he returned, he looked a lot different.

“His last couple of fights, he’s been a ground and pound guy,” Barry said. “He’s going to push you up against the cage, pull your legs out from under you, get on top of you – he’s not submitting you, but he’s going to beat you up on the ground.”

Barry said as much in an interview, but said his words got twisted around by reporters to sound like he was disrespecting Kongo’s striking abilities. Understandably, Kongo wasn’t too happy about those stories.

Despite his desire to prove his superiority in striking, Barry said he wasn’t saying that Kongo isn’t a good striker – just that he had changed.

Hence, the rumor patrol.

“So the rest of the world that thinks I’m underestimating his standup is completely wrong,” Barry said. “I didn’t say that. And Cheick, you know that – just like I do – that sometimes things go a little differently. Other than that, you can never believe what you read on the Internet.”

3) Is Pat Barry is the best striker in the UFC heavyweight division?

True, true, true, Barry would say. But he’s not just a striker anymore. He’s put in an awful lot of time with strong grapplers. Gone are the days of rolling with lighter guys that, like him, see the striking game as a side dish to the main course of MMA striking.

Rumor has it he’ll be able to hold his own against Kongo if Kongo tries to put him against the fence and grind him out.

“I have to use all my tools,” he said. “It’s not just kickboxing anymore, and I’ve had to accept that. I was like, “I’m going to be the best kickboxer in the UFC. It’s not just kickboxing anymore. To want [Kongo] for his striking aspect, and then to see what he’s been doing, I have to choice but to evolve.”

As to who’s evolved more in the past three years, Barry will try to give a definitive statement on Sunday.

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